Maple Syrup Ice Cream

This ice cream was originally Maple Bacon Crunch Ice Cream.  I could never get the “crunch” to work.  I’ll put the instructions below mine, but basically you stir sugar on medium-high for 8 minutes or so.  Now, call me crazy however I think every recipe I’ve ever seen where you cook straight sugar state “DO NOT STIR” in big bold letters at one point.  It wasn’t a total loss.  The cooked bacon bits that I chopped finely made excellent sprinkles and absolutely delicious on the maple syrup ice cream.  I have a Ben and Jerry’s Ice cream recipe that uses this maple syrup base and stirs in walnuts.  I’m thinking of putting it on my pancakes in the morning  😉

Maple Syrup Ice Cream
yield 1 qt.

3 lg. egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup whole milk
1 cup maple syrup, preferable grade B (Ben and Jerry’s recommends grade C, but I can’t find that anywhere.  I found Grade B at Trader Joe’s)
2 cups heavy cream

Toppings:  cook bacon until crisp and cut off any really fatty parts; chop finely and use as sprinkles
Mix Ins:  walnuts

1.  In a saucepan, whisk together the yolks, sugar and salt.  Whisk briskly for about 3-4 minutes and watch as the yolks turn pale yellow.
2.  Whisk in the milk.  Cook on the stove on medium heat.  Keep an eye on it!  It turns to scrambled eggs quickly.  Keep stirring a lot.  The mixture may start to just barely simmer.  It will coat the back of a spoon when it is done.
3.  Remove from heat and add in the maple syrup.  Stir.  Store in the fridge until cold – about 1-2 hours.
4.  Add the 2 cups of heavy cream.
5.  Churn baby churn!

Freeze if you like in the freezer for a firmer texture.

According to the magazine, here is how you are supposed to be able to make the bacon brittle.  Let me know how this works!  I think something is off and you are not supposed to stir at some point perhaps?  I’m not sure!  I try to always reinterpret and write the directions as my own throughout the website but I’m making an exception here since I wanted to show you the failed recipe exactly as written from Food Network Magazine page 216 of the July/August 2012 issue.

-Cook 1 cup sugar over medium high heat and stir constantly “until it melts and turns golden, about 4 minutes”.  Then it says “if lumps form, remove from the heat and continue stirring until melted.”  Which I did and nothing happened but clumps.
-“Continue to cook, stirring” until light amber, about 2 more minutes.  Remove from the heat and immediately stir” in 1 Tb. butter.  Carefully stir in 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1/8 tsp. cayenne or chipotle chile powder.  Pour onto a baking sheet and cool about 15 minutes.  Break into bite size pieces, then smash about one third of the brittle into shards for the ice cream.

Recipe adapted from Food Network Magazine July/Aug 2012